How Hi Dive made a splash

Published 2:10 pm, Friday, October 4, 2013

Hi Dive's location certainly became a lot better once The Embarcadero became a destination, the Giants opened their ballpark a few blocks away and Google set up an office across the street.

Hi Dive's location certainly became a lot better once The Embarcadero became a destination, the Giants opened their ballpark a few blocks away and Google set up an office across the street.

Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle

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How Hi Dive made a splash

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This is part of a series exploring the Port of San Francisco restaurants. These waterfront spots embrace and reflect the city's oldest - and newest - culinary traditions, and they have plenty of stories to tell. Previous articles are at www.sfgate.com/food and www.sfchronicle.com/food.

When you see the crowds pushing into Hi Dive for drinks or filling up its portside patio for lunch on a sunny day, it's hard to imagine the owner of its previous incarnation, Boondocks, once decried the port's revitalization.

In 1993, not long after the Embarcadero Freeway had come down, the area was a mess and business was down. Construction was due to take away parking in front of Boondocks, and owner Jim Kennedy told a Chronicle reporter he feared things would only get worse.

Twenty years later, the Embarcadero is a major destination, and Hi Dive sits about halfway between AT&T Park and the Ferry Building. And who could have guessed back in 1993 that the Giants would take home two World Championships just a few blocks away, or that Google would open a San Francisco office across the street?

"People always tell me, 'You were so smart to open a bar down here,' " says Hi Dive co-owner and bar maven John Caine. "It was all luck."

When Caine and partners Pat McCune and Brett Klinker won the bid to buy Boondocks in 2002, he needed a job, having lost the lease on Cafe Mars (now called Mars Bar). It took two years to renovate Boondocks and reopen it as the Hi Dive in 2004.

They ran into all kinds of problems related to the tides and to rebuilding a 70-year-old building on a pier. "You budget three months for plumbing and it turned into nine months," says Caine.

When it opened, Hi Dive was almost half the size of Cafe Mars until patio seating was added. But unlike being South of Market, which mostly gets busy in the evenings, Hi Dive gets traffic for lunch, brunch and game nights.

Fish tacos with chipotle aioli and avocado is the top seller, followed by the burger made with Niman Ranch beef, and the Caesar with chicken at lunch.

Nearby apartment dwellers will start reclaiming their neighborhood dive now that the Giants' season is over, Caine says. Though the interior is nothing fancy, the bartenders are friendly and the cozy dining area offers a view of the bay, although on a busy night the tables might be sticky with beer.

America's Cup was also a boon, since the bar is located at the headquarters of Emirates Team New Zealand. Although sailors didn't come in often, members of the team's large crew would show up reliably after their shift ended at 5 p.m.

Though mostly younger women usually tend bar - they are responsible for teaching the Kiwis how to tip, says Caine - he's credited with bringing the Cosmopolitan to San Francisco from Cincinnati in the '80s.

The way Caine tells it, the drink was invented in gay bars in New England when someone added locally made cranberry juice to a Kamikaze. The drink eventually made its way to Cincinnati, where Caine worked.

He started pouring the drink when he came to San Francisco to work at Julie's Supper Club. "It's fallen off now," he says. Instead, the most ordered cocktail at the Hi Dive is a margarita, which is made from fresh-squeezed lime juice.

The crowd varies depending on what's going on. On weekends, neighborhood folks might settle in for a bottle of wine with brunch.

Game nights, "We've got the old farts from Fairfax drinking VO and water and the high-five and Bud Light dudes from the Marina," says Caine.

The Fairfax contingent takes the ferry in.

"They're fantastic," he says. "They come here and they eat because we're cheaper than the stadium food."

This year, one of them couldn't make the games so they gave Caine a ticket.

"I got to go in with them," says Caine. "That's another benefit of having a Major League Baseball stadium in the neighborhood."

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